New twist in Kazakhstan plane crash, Russia president Putin apologises because…., the reason behind deadly crash revealed and its related to…

Thirty-eight people were killed in the crash.

New Delhi: Russian president Vladimir Putin on Saturday, 28 December 2024 apologised to Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan for the Kazakhstan plane crash of the AZAL airliner that occurred in Russia’s airspace and conveyed his condolences to the families of the plane crash victims.

“Vladimir Putin offered his apologies that the tragic incident had occurred in Russia’s airspace and once again conveyed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the plane crash victims and wished those injured the quickest recovery,” the press office said in a statement, TASS news agency reported, quoting the Kremlin press office on Saturday, 28 December 2024.

Thirty-eight people were killed in the crash.

President Putin called President Aliyev and informed him that Russian air defence systems were operational to counter Ukrainian drones when the Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft attempted to land in Grozny prior to its crash, according to a Kremlin statement.

“During this time, Grozny, (the town of) Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian combat drones and Russian air defence was repelling these attacks,” said the Kremlin statement.

However, it did not directly indicate whether Russian air defence was responsible for downing the aircraft.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev told Putin that the aircraft experienced “external physical and technical interference” whilst flying over Russian territory.

“President Ilham Aliyev emphasized that the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane encountered external physical and technical interference while in Russian airspace, resulting in a complete loss of control,” said a statement from the presidential office.

The statement further noted that Aliyev pointed to several pieces of evidence, including perforations in the aircraft’s body, injuries to passengers and crew caused by foreign objects entering the cabin during flight, and statements from surviving cabin crew and passengers, all indicating external interference with the aircraft’s operation.

The “external interference of a physical and technical nature” was also claimed by Azerbaijan Airlines on Friday, December 27, after the preliminary investigation.

The aircraft with flight number J2-8243 crashed near Aktau Airport in Kazakhstan.

(With agencies’ inputs)